Popular contemporary recreational activities involving water include such individual or group endeavors as swimming, fishing, boating, or "tubing" (that sport which involves entering a river upstream and riding the current downstream sitting on or laying across a tire inner tube as a floation device). Inner tubes are also useful in swimming and fishing when a floating platform is desired.
In most climes, the described water activities usually occur in bright sunlight on warm summer days and frequently result in heat discomfort. Further, when costumes are brief, the user risks possible blistering of body parts from the accumulation of rays and heat directly from the sun or reflected from the surface of the water. It can be readily understood that the minimal clothing often used while participating in water sports or "tubing" could exacerbate discomfort and/or physiological damage.